The world of cozy mysteries seems almost overrun with new series about crafts and specialty
shops, but Monica Ferris' well-established one featuring needlework shop owner Betsy
Devonshire has always stood out for me. Not so much because of the needlework, but because
of the equally believable characters and puzzle solving at its core.
Betsy isn't an expert needle worker, any more than she's Superwoman fighting crime.
She seems to have a knack for crime-solving, but she does it as you or I might - doubting
herself all the while, having to ask people all sorts of things rather than already knowing
everything or being some sort of genius, having all too human reactions at the thought
of looking at murdered bodies, and relying on her friends for help.
In Crewel Yule, Betsy and crew are far from home at a wholesaler's market in
a Nashville hotel. How well the characters work -believability as people and in detecting -
away from their usual environments is always a good test for a series like this. Here they
come up trumps. A rare blizzard has isolated the hotel into a sort of locked room puzzle,
populated with people from the victim's past who have reason to hate and resent her. That
same blizzard interferes with proper police investigation and leaves them eager to accept
a verdict of accidental death. So, driven by Jill, a policewoman herself back home and
niggled here by too many anomalies to believe in accidents, Betsy and crew keep investigating.
Characterization is a strong point throughout, including memorable bit parts like a
hotel administrator trying to be professional while keeping that last nerve from snapping
and the victim herself, who comes across as all too believably someone who could drive
many people to the breaking point. I did find the setup in the first few chapters, jumping
all around in time and viewpoint, unnecessarily frustrating. But once that groundwork
is laid, you can relax and just enjoy yourself. Probably not my favorite entry in the
series because of that initial frustration, but I really enjoyed it regardless.